and the cowboy's wife

In The Beginning #8 (and the last…)

Sometime the week after THAT DANCE and spending time over the weekend together I received a phone call from THE EX, Renee~she wanted to talk. Something needed to be done about Kirk~he was going to keep playing the both of us if we let him. As she put it~neither of us were immune to him~all he had to do was wiggle his little finger and we came running. She was right.

While visiting we did some comparing of love letters he’d written and not only did he have the same nickname for the two of us, but our letters seemed to say the same things. We decided to meet in Their Town at the school parking lot to exchange our letters and talk more.

Thankfully mom was working or I’d never been allowed to town again on a school night. Dad let me go into town with my go to reason, to swap clothes with my friend Missy.

Renee and I met and exchanged letters, the lighting was so poor we decided to drive uptown where there was better light.

Not knowing if he’d come into town, which she was hoping for and I wasn’t, I told her I’d run to Missy’s and call him and see if he could come into town.

I went to Missy’s and called. I told him that if he loved me as he said he did, he’d stay out of town and let me handle things. When pressed for information I only repeated myself and told him I’d call him later. Don’t know why I thought that was such a good idea…

Renee and I went downtown and sat on the bench outside the bar~across the street from The Game Room. Several kids were there that night and had to laugh and wonder what they were thinking and saying while making no attempt to hide the fact that they were standing at the big front window watching every move we made. I’m sure we were a sight. This is a town of less than 500 people, so pretty much everyone in town knew everyone.

Reading one another’s love letters was a mixed bag of emotions, it hurt that her letters read the same as mine.

Hell on four wheels came flying down mainstreet~Kirk pulled up to the curb~got out of his vehicle and bluntly asked “what the fuck is going on?”. Guessing the kids across the street were dying to know what was going on on our side of the street.

Remembering what my mother had said weeks earlier I said that we should go back to the school parking lot. Renee and I got back in my car and vowed to stick together and stay strong.

I don’t remember what all was said that night but I do recall Kirk and Renee did most of the talking. At one point Renee told Kirk he was going to have to stop playing games with us and make up his mind once and for all. Kirk pointed to me and said “I choose her”. I remember looking down and toeing the gravel with my boots…I was done, I had won!

With that I called it a night~knowing I was pry pushing my luck not being back home yet. I had a healthy fear of getting in trouble by my parents and wasn’t wanting to get in trouble for anything so minor.

I would like to say that was the end of Renee~it wasn’t. The next couple years I would find myself having to deal with her round about every six months. Never to this degree though.

Funny thing~a few years ago Kirk and I went on a double date with my brother and a gal his friends had set him up with. You know who without my saying. Our daughters were in the same dance classes for a couple years in junior high. Our sons are both open enrolled from the school in Their Town where our girls went to the school in My Town where I went. We are friends now, when we run into one another once every year or so we can sit and visit for quite some time.